Product Review – Pure-Racing KS i7 Dropper Post

I’ve been looking out for one of these for ages now, and by chance during a weekend riding in Wales I find one in the bike shop (www.oneplanetadventure.com) at Llandegla. Because the size is 27.2mm they are like rocking horse shit, so finding one by chance made a bloody good day.

Out the box it feels like a nice bit of kit, shame the remote is extra though, and for what you get the remote is damn expensive. Fitted its so nice to be able to drop the post on demand rather than stopping all the time to manually lower and raise it. I’ve been told the cable can get sticky making it harder to raise and lower, I’ll know in time if I agree with that …. I’ll post updates.

UPDATE

Well it’s been a couple of months now so I thought it time to write an update, and so far the post seems to be reliable; after the inital instalation there was some tinkering about needed regarding how the cable routes over the seat clamp, it was sticking to much meaning excessive presssure is needed to activate the lever, only the i7 routes this way and it’s because of the external reservoir. Theres a small amount of play in the head but nothing thats noticable when riding, probably just like forks once they’re loaded up they settle into their bushings better. It’s also weird if the saddle is lowered and you pick it up by the saddle, the post doesn’t stay where it was, it moves upwards, but this isn’t a detriment to the post, it’s just a feature thats also present in other posts, even the mighty Reverb.

Do I think it’s worth while … hell yeah … the feature makes riding so much more pleasurable, until you can do it you really can’t appreciate the benefit of being able to raise and lower the saddle so easily on demand without having to stop, you can read in the next post (Sherwood Pines – Red Route) how being able to lower the saddle easily made a section I’ve never enjoyed before seem so different.

UPDATE (July 2014)

I’ve had the post 23 months now and recently the post will not raise up whilst riding unless I clamp it between my thighs and help it, the remote lever is also unbearably difficult to press despite new cables and rerouting. I’ve therefore been in touch with the bike shop (One Planet Adventure) about it’s warrently period. I beleive its 2 years and so did the bike shop, but I’m waiting for an email from the manager to confirm this. (Update : James [the manager] from One Planet has called me back to confirm it is a 2 year warranty on the KS i7 which is good news for me, and I’ll drop the err post in the post tonight. A big thumbs up to ‘One Planet Adventures’ as James seems to have gone above and beyond to get confirmation for me and has called back in a very short time.)

I’m hoping to get this fixed as I’ve replaced it with a KS Lev 272 and now need this for the GF’s bike but her thumbs sure as heck won’t be able to press the remote.

AUTHOR

Chris

I'm a young 40 yrs old, born and bred in and around Mansfield Woodhouse. I biked throughout my childhood, but like many, I took a break for a few years when I first started working. By the time I was 23 I was riding again and started to get into Mountain Biking, and thats when my love of the Peak District started to develop (I'm not called Peak Geek for nothing), at 26 I was just getting into climbing as well; going out regular with a group of friends, I was either Mountain Biking or climbing 5 times a week minimum.
At the age of 29 I started Motorbiking as well and for a number of years the climbing and Mountain Biking dropped off, but in 2009 I started Mountain Biking more regular. However, in Sept of that year I had a motorbike crash. Injuries sustained were a broken collarbone (not that I could tell) and the head of the radial bone in my wrist was smashed into about 10 pieces, this was quite a serious break, but I was determined to recover, and have not used it as an excuse not to do things but it can be a hinderance when climbing and trying to undercut or mantle. I've not replaced the Motorbike (yet!) but am enjoying having more time to do Mountain Biking and climbing again.